If diamonds are girls' best friend, rhinestones can also be a woman's next best friend. For those who cannot afford expensive diamond jewelry may consider getting rhinestone costume jewelry instead. The brilliance from a rhinestone can make you a center of attraction, may it be on your wedding day, parties, proms, and pageants.

Rhinestones are colorless or colored artificial gemstones that simulate diamonds and other gems. They can be made of glass or paste, but the best rhinestones are cut from quartz crystal. Rhinestones have a fused, metallic backing that reflects the light and gives the stones fire

The original "rhinestones" came from the river Rhine. These Rhine-Stones gave way to mass-produced glass rhinestones. Most are backed with gold, silver, or tinted foil, or tin, to simulate dazzling gem colors. Finer rhinestones are hand-faceted and polished, many are hand-set within prongs. Unfoiled rhinestones usually have a high lead content creating fire and sparkle. These are referred to as crystals. Austria and the former Czechoslovakia are noted for crystals.

Sometimes rhinestones are called diamantes or crystals, however what's the difference between rhinestones an diamantes?This is a straight forward answer, none at all ! it is just different "names" for the same product. Most brides love to wear rhinestone jewelry for their wedding day, the brilliance from rhinestones can be on par from those that comes from a diamond. Most importantly, their cost is much lower. However the buyers should be aware that some sellers might simply pass off rhinestones as a cheaper source of diamonds!

Generally, the higher the grade, the more they will sparkle. The actual cut of the stone is not noticeable at a distance but it can affect the brilliance, and the cut combined with the overall quality, usually dictates the price. Most rhinestones are Austria and Czechoslovakia produced. Their differences are minute, Austria and Czechoslovakia produced eight facetted (Art 2000) rhinestones but the Austrian Swarovski stones were far superior. However as technology improved, the best quality Czech produced stones became almost indistinguishable from the Swarovski ones, and because of their price structure, were becoming increasingly competitive.

There are many different colours in the rhinestone collection. However the most popular colours are the original clear coloured ones. As it can simply match any dress style and you can wear them for both formal and semi formal occasions. Strong blue and red rhinestones are always popular in the industry, AB rhinestones /crystal (Aurora Borealis) are also well liked among brides because it has a rainbow-like effect to the basic stone color, and may somewhat lighten the base color. This Effect is most commonly associated with Crystal stones.

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